Henk Vogels Cycling Foundation celebrates 10-year anniversary

Henk Vogels Cycling Foundation celebrates 10-year anniversary

Luke Durbridge (Orica GreenEdge) winner of the prologue in Grenoble at the 2012 Criterium du Dauphine

(Sirotti)

Melissa Hoskins (GreenEdge - AIS) took overall victory

(CJ Farquharson/WomensCycling.net)

Isabella King, Josephine Tomic and Melissa Hoskins were all smile following their gold medal performance in the women's 3000m team pursuit.

(Cycling Australia / Regallo)

Jack Bobridge (Orica-GreenEdge) drills it on the climb

(Rob Lampard)

Rohan Dennis (Australia) en route to a silver medal in the U23 time trial world championship.

(Bettini)

South Australian Rohan Dennis takes out the men's under 23 road race title ahead of Victorian Eric Sheppard (partly obscured)

(Shane Goss)

Cameron Meyer (Australia)

(Sirotti)

Australian road champion Travis Meyer (Garmin - Transitions)

(www.ispaphoto.com)

Numerous high-profile cyclists from Western Australia can thank Henk Vogels Snr and the foundation he co-founded for assisting them to reach their potential. The Henk Vogels Cycling Foundation provides financial support to WA cyclists so they can attend national and world championships.

A fundraiser dinner is being held on 30 November in Perth at the University of Western Australia to ensure the foundation can continue to support upcoming talent in the year to come. Former beneficiaries of the foundation Luke Durbidge, Jack Bobridge, Rohan Dennis, Melissa Hoskins and Josie Tomic will attend as special guests of the night. Durbridge and Hoskins are the official ambassadors for the foundation.

Guests will have the chance to bid on a range of auction items including a framed jersey signed by the members of the London Olympic track team and other cycling memorabilia.

Without assistance from the Henk Vogels Foundation current Orica-GreenEdge riders Cam and Travis Meyer, Durbridge, Bobridge and recent Garmin-Sharp signing Dennis would not have been able to compete at a number of world championships and other important events.

Orica-AIS rider Melissa Hoskins, Australian track cyclist Josephine Tomic and many other current professionals may have missed out if the foundation had not been around.

"It started off with Ryan Bayley who couldn't go to the national titles because there was no funding. He finished up winning two gold medals," said Vogels to Cyclingnews. "That started us off to make sure the young kids get looked after so they can go to national titles and world championships."

"Juniors going to world championships have to pay between five and six thousand dollars every time they go away. Cameron Meyer, Luke Durbridge, all those people were beneficiaries of our cycling foundation."

"We partly fund each one and we have gotten bigger and better as we go along. This is our 10th anniversary really," he said.